Since its introduction in 1977 as an alternative (or as supplementation) to invasive surgical procedures and/or x-rays, the utilization of magnetic resonance imaging (hereinafter “MRI”) in medical diagnosis and treatment has increased dramatically. In this regard, modem MRI imaging techniques produce images with exceptional contrast and which can be rendered in any plane as well as three-dimensionally. Moreover, apart from their imaging quality, MRI imaging techniques are believed to be very safe. For example, MRI techniques do not utilize harmful ionizing radiation but instead rely on the application of magnetic fields and radio frequencies which induce atomic level energy changes which are detectable for assimilation into highly detailed, accurate body (or other object type) images. In contrast, imaging techniques such as computerised tomography scanning (CT scanning) expose patients to significant doses of ionizing radiation which is believed to increase incidences of malignancy. Furthermore, CT techniques cannot reproduce the relative high contrast of an MRI image and have the additional shortcoming of not being able to adequately differentiate between similar but otherwise distinct tissue types (e.g., in particular, if the tissues have similar densities).
Although, conventional MRI has proven to be a dramatic leap forward in the medical arts, MRI is somewhat limited by long image acquisition times and low signal-to-noise ratios (SNR), difficulties in certain spatial resolutions, and in differentiating between lipid based and water based tissues. Although modem, specialized MRI techniques, such as steady state free precession (SSFP), ameliorate, at least to a degree, such issues, such techniques exhibit greater than desired signal loss as a result of the transfer of magnetization between free and bound protons in tissues (henceforth called magnetization transfer ot MT), for example. This, as a result, limits the techniques usefulness in certain clinical applications such as, for example, in the imaging of the brain for evaluation of white matter type diseases such as multiple sclerosis.
In view of the above, it is apparent that there exists a need in the art for imaging methods and/or apparatus which solve or at least ameliorate one or more of the above drawbacks of the prior art. It is a purpose of this invention to fulfill this need in the art as well as other needs which will become more apparent to the skilled artisan once given the following disclosure.